Merrimack takes Queen City basketball title

Friday, January 6, 2012

MANCHESTER – Last year, when the Merrimack High School boys basketball team played in the finals of the Queen City Invitational, junior point guard Dimitri Floras was 500 miles away at his grandmother’s funeral in Cincinnati.

Wednesday night, Floras got his first chance to play in a Queen City final and delivered. His 3-pointer from the left corner with 7.1 seconds left gave Merrimack a 55-54 lead and Tyler Gendron tacked on a pair of late free throws for a 57-54 Tomahawks victory.

As big as Floras’ winning shot was, a charge taken by Merrimack center Jeff Giannelli on Manchester West high scorer Jocarl Bureau (19 points) on a drive to the basket with just two seconds left was just as big.

Floras finished with 20 points and was named the tournament MVP, but he was humble when it was over.

“That wasn’t one of my better games in the last few years,” Floras said. “I missed a lot of easy shots. But I still wanted to take that shot.”

A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Floras gave Merrimack its biggest lead of the night, 44-39, after three quarters. But West, which had already pulled off upset victories over Trinity and Manchester Central to reach the final, opened the fourth quarter with a 12-2 run to take a 51-46 lead.

“West deserves a lot of credit,” said Merrimack coach Tim Goodridge, whose team beat the Blue Knights 63-49 in a regular-season game just two weeks ago. “To do what they did in this tournament shows you what a great job (coach) Danny Bryson has done with them.

“It also shows you how tough this league is night to night. They (West) are going to be a tough out, down the road.”

“Nobody gave us any chance coming into this,” said Bryson, whose team finished 6-12 last year after a 6-4 start, mostly because of injuries. “We had three goals coming into the tournament: to get a set rotation, become a team and have fun.

“I think we accomplished all three.”

While Floras was the MVP, he got plenty of help. Jared Peabody got the Tomahawks off early, scoring eight of his 10 points in the first half. Tyler Gendron caught fire in the second half and finished with 12.

Giannelli’s six points included a rebound putback that put Merrimack ahead 52-51 late, but West would regain the lead on a drive by Bureau with one minute left. A free throw by Nolan Flynn made it a two-point lead, setting the stage for Floras’ game-winner.

It was the eighth time Merrimack has advanced to the final of the Queen City in 12 years, but the first victory since the third of three straight titles in 2002.

“I’ve been coming to this tournament for a long time,” Floras said. “I watched by brother play up here. It was nice to win it again.”

But, as Goodridge warned, it’s only December and there is a lot of basketball yet to be played. And another team in Manchester that seems capable of playing with anyone.